Nowadays social media has played a significant role in several organisations. Currently, about 80% of business executives have considered using social media for supporting their marketing activities (Choudhury and Harrigan, 2014). With this technological tool, it has facilitated companies to improve their decision making as well as to identify the consumer behaviors. Besides, it also helps to enhance a good relationship with customers and other key stakeholders. This paper attempts to examine how marketers could utilise these technological tools for developing their marketing strategies effectively. Firstly, this paper will discuss on three advices related to the implementation of social media such as how to apply social media with B2B strategies. These three recommendations would be beneficial for organisations to achieve sustainability. Secondly, this paper will analysis findings of empirical studies in order to demonstrate whether using social media would have positive impacts on business performance. Thirdly, this paper will discuss the limitation of using social media in which marketers need to concern before applying to their business performance.
Initially, marketers should use social media to support their B2B marketing strategy in order to create brand awareness among their customers.
How to implement social media in B2B strategy
When companies have used social media to advertise products and services, marketers should emphasise on its corporate branding instead of product branding in social media messages (Brown et al., 2012). Focusing on such corporate brands would increase more interactive with B2B buyers than B2C buyers (Swani et al., 2014). Therefore, this leads to enhance brand recognitions among customers. Besides...
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...es and all factors related to using social media, companies should consider the readiness of organisation before applying social media as it could impact on organisational cultures and other stakeholders such as customers and suppliers. Since companies need to interact with these people on business activities, companies should concern about how much they have familiar with using it. If they have generally not applied it with their business activities, utilising social media might not be truly beneficial for organisation. Nevertheless, using social media would be beneficial for companies to monitor their competitors and explore more opportunities on business in order to increase their competitive advantages. Consequently, companies should trade off between pros and cons of this tool. If the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, companies should consider using it.
Nair (2011) states, social media can be described as online tools where content, opinions, perspectives, insights, and media can be shared. Some people create content, while others lurk, observe, or disseminate content. At its core, social media is about relationships and connections between people and organizations.(p. 45) Due to so much information being shared through social media it has changed the way businesses interact with their business partners or vendors, businesses have also started to create new product because of the information that is available to them through social media, thus attaining higher profits. At the same time, because of social media and the amount of information that is shared through these services, businesses have been put in a position where they must be careful how they operate to keep their reputation and na...
In recent years, the realms of marketing and public relations have changed. Branding has become an increasingly important tool for businesses. As described in Kleppner’s Advertising Procedure, attributes of a successful brand include recognition, differentiation, imagery, and the ability to link all brand communications to that brand (Lane, King, Russell, & Kleppner, 2005 p. 639). In 2016, branding also means having a strong presence on social media. Lisa Ostrowercha describes social media as another way “… for your brand to share its personality with the masses” (Ostrowercha, 2016).
A survey carried out by a professional Social Media Company, involving 998 small and mid size businesses in North America, revealed that around 94 percent used it for marketing purposes. They found it the best way to maintain the organization's identity and existence online (Yeung, 2014).
Many organizations have had to change the way they operate because social media has become such a powerhouse that has to be implemented in their marketing and communication strategies.
Social media is a modern way to manage the business; this is a useful to the companies to manage the existence in the market approach to the brand and consumers. Also, using a social media they are able to get the feedbacks from customers and able to improve their business. Additionally, social media is used everywhere by everyone and people go on it a lot of times in a day. Therefore it is important for the business to fit to the changes occurring in the market frequently in order to keep the business working properly and not losing customers.
Due to great advances in technology in recent years, new ways of communicating are inevitable for organizations to communicate strategically with major stakeholders. One of the ‘new’ ways for organizations to engage with customers, employees, news media and communities is through the use of social media. Social media allows sharing messages in seconds and delivering them to thousands of people around the world. Many organizations own multiple social network channels to ensure they are where the customers are, however, are they utilizing them to their best ability internally as well?
Social media in marketing is used as an apparatus that builds an identity for a brand and gives awareness that they thought they could have. It does not only respect buyers, but also customer allegiance. Social media is widely-ranged so it can be used in whatever way that best conforms to the strategy and wants of the business. In accordance to the social media marketing report of 2014, a considerable (64%) of marketers use social media for at least 6 hours or more and 41% for 11 hours or more weekly, more importantly nearly (19%) of marketers use up to 20 hours each week on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and many more. The report also showed 7 social media platforms that led in 2014 which are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Youtube, Pinterest and Instagram.
Sometimes the best way to see if your business needs help with social media is to get your hands dirt with a social media evaluation. Although you might not be a social media expert...yet, you can still use these questions to see how to improve your presence.
Social media is pertinent in use of communication throughout today’s organizations. There are many social media platforms that allow organizations to convey communication to potential consumers, stakeholders and the public. “It is essential for leaders to integrate these technologies and seek the best way to use social media and networks to the advantage of the business” (Billington, 2012, p.1). Business owners find that keeping up with current technology trends is essential in having a competitive advantage in the market place and having a strict set of standards and strategy is important in quickly adapting to social media trends.
Social media marketing is a new trend of marketing where different Businesses have taken to social media sites to market and promote old and existing products and brands or create more awareness of their new products. Facebook and Twitter are the two most well known sites where firms market and promote themselves. Over one billion users worldwide use both sites everyday; from averages Joe’s to famous celebrities. Such is the power of each social media site that one post can make or break you.
Social media is a form of online communication channels devoted to society input, intercommunication, and cooperation. In social media, people can talk and interact without restriction, exchange and debate information with each other about their lives by using many different combinations of the words, personal multimedia, photos, and videos. Also, in social media, individulsa and groups can create, edit, comment on, and engage in personal conversations. There are numerous types of social media, for example, wikis, blogs, social network site, micro blogging services, and sites sharing media. At the beginning, social media was limited to a few networks sites, for instance, Bulletin Board System that allows people to communicate with each other and post a comment. Today, social media has transformed from ineffective sites to more useful and effective websites, for example, Facebook, and MySpace. Some companies are using social media to achieve their goals which is attracting more customers to company website. Three advantages of using social media in business are: raising brand consciousness, building customer relationships, and increasing performance measurements.
Since social media users grow larger and larger, many companies take the opportunities of using social media marketing to reach more customers. Companies use social media marketing in order to achieve marketing communication and branding goals. Social media allows companies to see what prospects are saying about their brands and competitors. It also allows companies to build deeper relationships with existing customers that drives them to purchase again and again. Not only it can help them generate new leads, but it allows them to build deeper relationships with existing clients that drives them to purchase again and again. It has become common for businesses to branch out and experiment with multiple networks with the aim of reaching the maximum amount of costumers.
Among the billions of social media users, there is a percentage dedicated to businesses who use social media as part of their marketing strategy. The sheer number of people who use services like Facebook and Instagram on a daily
We can now connect with each other instantly over the internet. It is quicker and easier to communicate and share with each other now than it has ever been. Massive amounts of people access the internet every day, and a good number of them are using social media. This means that the ability to use social media and use it well is crucial for modern businesses. Whether for public relations or advertising social media is now one of the best ways to access consumers. Especially when it comes to younger generations, if you aren’t online you don’t exist. Social media is an excellent way to establish a presence in the minds of consumers. They can interact and establish a connection with an organization instantly. Social media is cheap and its everywhere. If a business hopes to compete in the modern world having a social media presence is absolutely
In the end, social media provide a way of keeping in relations with friends, also allow many companies to reach a large number of costumers and to be more productivity. At the same time, media are changing the ways in which we communicate and interact with others. Social media is a very interesting thing in our life. It was made for the free exchange of lots of information all around the world without boundaries but we have to know well how and why to use these media.